Opal Country – Chris Hammer

Opals…

In the desolate outback town of Finnigans Gap, police struggle to maintain law and order. Thieves pillage opal mines, religious fanatics recruit vulnerable youngsters and billionaires do as they please.

Bodies…

Then an opal miner is found crucified and left to rot down his mine. Nothing about the miner’s death is straight-forward, not even who found the body. Homicide detective Ivan Lucic is sent to investigate, assisted by inexperienced young investigator Nell Buchanan.

But Finnigans Gap has already ended one police career and damaged others, and soon both officers face damning allegations and internal investigations. Have Ivan and Nell been set up, and if so, by whom?

Secrets…

As time runs out, their only chance at redemption is to find the killer. But the more they uncover, the more harrowing the mystery becomes, and a past long forgotten is thrown into scorching sunlight.

Because in Finnigans Gap, nothing stays buried for ever.

My thanks to the publishers for providing a review copy through Netgalley.

This book clocks in at over 500 pages and over the Christmas period I worked my way through the adventures of Ivan Lucic and Nell Buchanan as they investigated the murder and crucifiction of an opal miner – found down his own mineholding and left for an unknown period of time. In terms of memorable murders in crime fiction I cannot think of any other books which open with a crucifictions down a mine. This got my attention from the get-go.

And after grabbing my attention Chris Hammer had no plans to let it go. There’s loads going on in Opal Country and I really enjoyed this trip to the remote (and very hot) Australian wilderness. The story takes place in and around Finnegans Gap and our lead character Ivan Lucic is dropped into the town totally unprepared for the heat and isolation he encounters. He is paired up with local cop Nell Buchanan who provides the local knowledge and expertise which will make the pair a strong team.

But Ivan and Nell don’t click all the time and there are times when the partnership is strained, particularly when past events find their way from the city to Finnegans Gap and internal affairs come to pay Ivan a visit. This element of the story links to other Hammer stories but readers do not need to have read the earlier books (though I recommend you do as they are great). The reason for an internal affairs police officer visiting Ivan in this book is clearly explained to ensure you understand the position he has found himself in when events in Opal Country begin.

I found the background to Opal Country fascinating too. I knew little of opals and how they are mined but this is an integral part of the story building and Chris Hammer takes his readers through the problems the miners face making it an integral part of the story as he builds the backgrounds of the town and the key players in this thriller. Smoothly done and it ensured I was sufficiently up to speed when mining rivalries reared their heads.

While I was reading Opal Country I did refer to the book as “a beast”. There were times in the middle third of the story where I felt I was reading but not actually making any progress through the book (in terms of completion). But despite that faux sense of no-progress I was loving the story and there was lots of information to take in. It’s a big book but it’s a cracking story and I am extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to read this ahead of publication.

Chris Hammer has become one of the names I now look out for. Clever plotting, strong characters and memorable stories – I am already looking forward to the next one.

Opal Country is published on 6 January by Wildfire Books and you can order a copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/opal-country/chris-hammer/9781472295880

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January 4

Demon – Matt Wesolowski

In 1995, the picture-perfect village of Ussalthwaite was the site of one of the most heinous crimes imaginable, in a case that shocked the world.

Twelve-year-old Sidney Parsons was savagely murdered by two boys his own age. No reason was ever given for this terrible crime, and the ‘Demonic Duo’ who killed him were imprisoned until their release in 2002, when they were given new identities and lifetime anonymity.

Elusive online journalist Scott King investigates the lead-up and aftermath of the killing, uncovering dark stories of demonic possession, and encountering a village torn apart by this unspeakable act.

And, as episodes of his Six Stories podcast begin to air, and King himself becomes a target of media scrutiny and the public’s ire, it becomes clear that whatever drove those two boys to kill is still there, lurking, and the campaign of horror has just begun…

My thanks to Karen at Orenda Books for the review copy I received and to Anne Cater of Random Things Blog Tours for the opportunity to join the Demon blog tour.

A new Six Stories book is cause for celebration. Matt Wesolowski’s superb chiller crime tales always skirt the supernatural but leave enough doubt in the reader’s mind that there may be a more “grounded” explanation for creepy incidents which arise in his stories.

A quick recap of the Six Stories format for new visitors. Podcast host Scott King will focus on an event which has a degree of notoriety. Over the course of six podcast episodes he interviews six different people with a connection to the focus of the series. He is not trying to convince his listeners he has “solved” or can explain a mystery, he presents these six stories and leaves listeners to form their own conclusions around what may have happened.

In Demon the subject of the new run of Six Stories is an extremely controversial event: two children murdered a school friend and were convicted for their crime. Both the boys were granted new identities and after a long period of rehabilitation were to be released back into society. It’s a highly emotive story and many feel the two killers should not be returned to society – there is even an online social media threat to leak their new identities and allow “justice” to be done.

Wesolowski tackles this controversial scenario with an astute narrative. Through one of the stories the guest explains how the child rehabilitation process works and how killers could possibly be considered for release. But this is done using the narrative from the story and readers may well find they agree there may be circumstances where young criminals could become mature rehabilitated citizens.

The murder of 12yo Sidney Parsons shocks the small Northern town but the two boys who ended his life had been terrorising the people in the village for weeks. However we learn through Kings podcast that the town has a history of dark incidents and more than one brush with witchcraft down the years.

How much of the events surrounding Sidney’s murder was down to the evil behaviour of two “Demon” children and how much relied upon external factors?

I had thought this story was clear cut but along the way there are revelations which changed my perception of the people involved and by the end of the final story my understanding of the whole episode had radically changed. It’s a terrific example of a slow reveal of information and hiding clues from the reader in plain sight.

I cannot recommend the Six Stories books more highly. Each new instalment has been a delight and Demon makes the series even stronger. Already looking forward to what comes next.

Demon is published by Orenda Books and is available in paperback, digital and audiobook format from all usual providers.

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January 1

The Curious Dispatch of Daniel Costello – Chris McDonald

Wedding bells are chiming in the idyllic, coastal town of Stonebridge. For Sam and Emily, it should be the happiest day of their lives. But, on the morning of the ceremony, the best man is found dead. The police quickly write his death off as a tragic accident, but something doesn’t seem right to wedding guest and groomsman Adam Whyte. Armed with an encyclopaedic, but ultimately ridiculous knowledge of television detective shows and an unwarranted confidence in his own abilities, Adam and his best friend (and willing Watson), Colin, set out to uncover what actually happened to Daniel Costello.

My thanks to Isis Audio for a review copy of the book ahead of today’s Audiobook Publication.

Happy New Year and Happy Audio Publication Day to Chris Mcdonald as the first of his Stonebridge books releases to a new audience as a talking book.

At time of writing there are five Stonebridge books in the series and The Curious Dispatch of Daniel Costello is the first and the first to be released as an audiobook. It’s my introduction to the series too so a perfect time for me to catch up on a series which was catching my eye last year.

This story is described as a modern cosy story and that’s not typically been my normal choice of reading but I read the blurb and it sounded fun. Good news. It WAS fun. Events surround a wedding and the wedding party are all gathered in a large (exclusive) country house hotel.

The title does rather give away who the victim in this murder tale is going to be. But within the first few chapters he stands out as a toxic character and his forthcoming demise doesn’t seem the worst outcome. However the manner of Daniel Costello’s death leads the police to conclude it was an unfortunate accident after too much drink had been consumed.

At this point Adam Whyte intercedes. He has seen far too many crime dramas to dismiss some unexplained details surrounding Daniel’s death. He ropes in his friend Colin to assist as Adam begins his own investigation into the murder(?) which has taken place right under his nose.

This was a delightful way to begin my reading for 2022. Chris Mcdonald keeps readers and listeners hanging onto the story with short and snappy chapters. Adam’s investigating makes for fun listening and although this is quite a short tale it didn’t feel light on details and there are plenty of suspects to challenge the home detectives joining in at home.

As you would expect from an Isis Audiobook, the audio version is a great listen. Narrative responsibility sits with Stephen Armstrong and I very much enjoyed being guided through this story with his voice in my ears.

Great fun and plenty of humour through the story to add to my enjoyment of a clever wee murder mystery.

The Curious Dispatch of Daniel Costello is available as an audiobook and in print and digital format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1913331873/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_fabc_B1AVCYY25CHVHJ2ZCNDPhttps://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1913331873/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_fabc_B1AVCYY25CHVHJ2ZCNDP

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December 23

Cover Reveal: Best Defence – William McIntyre

As the year draws to an end my thoughts turn to the year ahead and the promise of many new books to enjoy. My preference will always be to pick up the latest book in an ongoing series – the opportunity to reunite with familiar characters and to see how their stories continue to develop always holds a greater lure for me (I am invested into so many fictional lives).

One of the first returning characters I will meet in 2022 is Robbie Munro, star of the Best Defence series from William McIntyre. An enticing prospect as Robbie’s legal adventures are always a treat and the author mixes adventure, legal wrangling and lots of wry humour which I always enjoy.

Best Defence is the twelfth book in the series but, having read the earlier titles, I am confident that the new book will be accessbile to new readers without need to pick up any of the previous stories. However, I would highly recommend trying these books for yourself, if you haven’t discovered Robbie Munro yet then you are missing out on a treat.

Before I share the cover for Best Defence I also get to reveal something of what we can expect from the book too:

Honesty is the best policy, but not always the Best DefenceWhen the wife of a soccer superstar is charged with murder, Robbie Munro is instructed for the defence, but his client’s version of events keeps changing as more and more damaging evidence is revealed.Meanwhile, Robbie’s brother, Malky, falls victim to the cancel culture, and insists Robbie step in to save his TV career.Both Robbie’s clients have their own strategies, but it’s up to Robbie to decide the BEST DEFENCE.

And now that cover:

That’s going to light up my Twitter feed! Not too long to wait until we can start reading, pre-orders are already possible on Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Best-Defence-Book-Robbie-Munro-ebook/dp/B09P1J7YH8/ref=sr_1_1?qid=1640302440&refinements=p_27%3AWilliam++McIntyre&s=digital-text&sr=1-1&text=William++McIntyre

Best Defence will be available from 1 January 2022.

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December 21

The Undiscovered Deaths of Grace McGill – C.S. Robertson

Death is not the end. For Grace McGill, it’s only the beginning. When people die alone and undiscovered, it’s her job to clean up what’s left behind – whether it’s clutter, bodily remains or dark secrets.

When an old man lies undetected in his flat for months, it seems an unremarkable life and an unnoticed death. But Grace knows that everyone has a story and that all deaths mean something more.

A stand-out novel with a unique narrative voice and an unguessable mystery, you are guaranteed to remember Grace McGill.

My thanks to the publishers who provided a review copy through Netgalley.

I don’t know where to start with this review. To be honest I just want to say:

Don’t read anything about this story.

Avoid all spoilers.

Just start reading and don’t stop.

Thank me later.

I’m not sure that will be quite enough. Even if I add *****Five Stars***** you would probably want a bit more. Okay I will do what I can but seriously, avoid spoilers.

Grace McGill lives in Glasgow. She works for herself and offers a specialist cleaning service – she cleans houses which have been neglected for prolonged periods of time and need to made habitable for a new resident. Often the reason the houses need a particularly deep clean is because the prevoius resident of the house has died in the house and nobody has noticed for a lengthy period of time. The Undiscovered Deaths part of the title suddenly clicks with the reader.

Needless to say the content of this story can be and may be upsetting for some readers. I don’t often include warnings when putting together a review but this time I feel it important to highlight that C.S. Robertson does not shy away from the work Grace McGill undertakes and the steps she may need to take to clean a home. It’s not detail which is included for shits and giggles, it forms an important part of understanding Grace and is dealt with factually and then the story proceeds.

Grace herself is a fascinating and unforgettable character. She lives alone (with a cat) and knows that people have trouble accepting what she does for a living. Even the cops who will contact her with new work can find her tricky to engage with. But Grace takes her work very seriously and wants to ensure she does right by the people she is cleaning up behind. She gets a quite unique insight into their lives and she is always respectful to their memory.

But Grace is now facing a strange dilemma. She has noticed something in one of the houses she is cleaning which does not seem to belong there. It is similar to an item she found at a previous house-clean. Curiosity leads Grace to a funeral and in turn she heads out of Glasgow to the Isle of Bute. Many years ago the island made the news and Grace has to consider the possibility a long-forgotten story may have a resolution in an untidy Glasgow flat.

I can’t say much more and I don’t want to say much more about the story. I DO want to say more about the writing which I found to be gobsmackingly good. C.S. Robertson tells a compassionate, haunting and unforgettable story and I loved reading about Grace. She dominates the story and shows a savvy inner strength when facing very challenging circumstances.

The Undiscovered Deaths of Grace McGill is out in January – I cannot wait for everyone to read this too.

The Undiscovered Deaths of Grace McGill is published by Hodder & Stoughton on 20 January 2022. You can order a copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-undiscovered-deaths-of-grace-mcgill/c-s-robertson/9781529367645

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December 20

The Gift – Eleanor’s Story – RA Williams

The North Atlantic, 14 April 1912. Amid the chaos of the sinking Titanic, a young Eleanor Annenberg meets the eyes of a stranger and is immediately captivated. As the ship buckles around them, she follows him down into the hold and finds him leaning over an open sarcophagus, surrounded by mutilated bodies. She catches but a glimpse of what lies within before she’s sucked into a maelstrom of freezing brine and half-devoured corpses. Elle is pulled out of the water, but the stranger – and the secrets she stumbled upon – are lost. Unintentionally, however, he leaves her a gift; one so compelling that Elle embarks on a journey that pulls her into a world of ancient evils, vicious hunters and human prey to find the man who saved her that fateful night. From trench warfare at Cape Helles in 1915 to a shipwreck in the tropical shallows off the Honduran coast, from a lost mine beneath the towering Externsteine in a Germany on the verge of war to the gothic crypts of Highgate Cemetery in London, Elle gets closer to a truth she has sought for most of her life. But at what cost? Gifts, after all, are seldom free.

I received a reveiew copy from the publishers. I would also like to thank Anne Cater at Random Things Blog Tours for the opportunity to host this leg of the blog tour for The Gift.

If The Gift was a movie (oh what a movie it would make) then it would absolutely be crying out for some between scene interludes where a series of dots track the progress of the story location across a map of the world. It begins on board the Titanic but events will see us in the trenches of Gallipoli during WW1, to lecture halls in the USA and then out in the ocean around the carribean. It’s a story which crosses continents and wherever the adventures take us there is always the threat of an unknown evil lurking in the background.

Onboard the Titanic during her maiden fateful voyage we meet Elle, a feisty 17 year old who is travelling with her parents. She is fending off unwelcome attentions of bankers and businessmen when the ship strikes the iceberg. But below decks one of the crew has discovered a horror in one of the holds, before alarm can be raised he is captivated by the sight of something watching him from the darkness, he will never see the light again.

As the alarm on the ship is raised Elle is below decks – she hears the shouts of alarm but not of the disaster which looms for Titanic, for a much more pressing danger below decks. There are names shouted, warnings, shotguns are discharged and one name – Balthazar stands out in the chaos.

It’s a dark, eerie and exciting opening to this story and the sinister, gothic danger continues. RA Williams has done a terrific job of teasing chills and keeping the reader’s attention. Action quickly switches from Titanic lifeboats to trench warfare at Gallipoli. This time we see a promoted soldier in no mans land, crawling through carnage to bring his own terror to the enemy as he hunts down snipers and enemy soldiers ensuring his own platoon stay safe. It is while he hunts among the bodies of the fallen that a “devil” is spotted – a creature which could not be explained but one that someone else may have seen.

The scenes in the trenches were particularly engaging. I loved this part of the story and the thinly veiled contempt which is shown to the officers who secure themselves safely away from the action is terrifically scripted.

Through the story is a constant threat of an undead evil. Mayan gods are mentioned, bats, ressurection and powerful sentinels. There is so much detail given about these mysterious forces that you will become captivated by the story which unfolds.

Elle grows into Eleanor and she is a successful academic. People travel many hundreds of miles to hear her speak about mysterious carvings, messages from history which crop up in new places around the world seemingly suggesting an old tale has spanned the globe when travel was extremely limited. The common theme – A Gift. While a gift would seem to be a positive story in these tales it really does not have a good association, fear and death seem more common companions.

The Gift comes as a fast flowing adventure tale with lashings of detail of evil forces. I loved it.

The Gift is published by Whitefox Publishing and is available in hardback. You can order a copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-gift-book-1-eleanor/ra-williams/9781913532956

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December 17

Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Lisa Gray

It’s mid December and it has been eleven months since my first Decades guest joined me back in January. That first guest was Sharon Bairden, an author I often met while attending book launches in Glasgow. So what a happy coincidence that my final guest of the year is also an author I would frequently meet when we attended book launches in Glasgow: Lisa Gray.

Don’t panic about the “last of the year” comment, I always say “DECADES WILL RETURN.” But with the busy holiday season approaching I have decided I am not going to share any new guest selections until 7th January 2022. Decades is as much about my guests as it is about their book selections so I do not want anyone to be overlooked while there are so many other distractions at this time of year. I have been asked to make my personal Decades choices so that may happen.

But back to the present (no Christmas pun indended). This week I am delighted to be joined by one of my best bookish pals, Lisa Gray. The challenge remains the same, Lisa has to nominate five of her favourite books which she thinks should be added to my Ultimate Library. She is allowed to choose any five books but can only select one book per decade from five consecutive decades.

Sometimes one of my guests will nominate a book and I will be instantly gobsmacked that the book or author has not yet featured in a previous selection. This is true of this week too…I shall let Lisa explain.

DECADES

Lisa Gray is an Amazon #1, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author. Her debut novel, Thin Air, was the third-bestselling Kindle book on Amazon.com in 2019. She previously worked as the chief Scottish soccer writer at the Press Association and the books editor at the Daily Record Saturday Magazine. She lives in Glasgow and writes full-time.

Lisa is the author of the Jessica Shaw books. Jessica is a troubled and tenacious private eye of no fixed abode, who investigates cases in and around Los Angeles. The latest in the series, Lonely Hearts, sees Jessica delve into the Lonely Hearts Club and the world of women who write to dangerous convicted criminals.

1970s — Carrie by Stephen King

I know, I know. Yet another Decades contributor picking a Stephen King book, but I do think it’s fascinating that we’re all choosing completely different ones! Carrie was the first King book I read, the first he had published, and it’s the one that has stayed with me the most. That heartbreaking scene in the girls’ locker room… That iconic scene with the pigs’ blood at the high school prom… It doesn’t matter if you read the book or watched the film, you’re not going to forget those images in a hurry. Carrie White is an outsider, bullied by her classmates and her own mother, before her telekinetic powers allow her to inflict a terrible, bloody revenge on the town that terrorised her. I liked that the novel was told in an epistolary style with newspaper articles and scientific reports included as part of the story. A true horror classic.

1980s — A is for Alibi by Sue Grafton

Confession time. Even though this book was published way back in the ‘80s (the best decade ever in my opinion), I only read it for the first time a couple of years ago. Like Grafton, I write a series about a plucky female private eye who doggedly investigates cases in Southern California. When people started comparing my Jessica Shaw books to the famous ‘Alphabet’ series, I knew I had to check it out. What can I say? That comparison is one hell of a compliment! I absolutely adore the twice-divorced Kinsey Millhone and her page-turning mysteries. If I can ever write a novel half as good as Sue Grafton, I’ll be happy.

1990s — The Concrete Blonde by Michael Connelly

The Concrete Blonde is one of the closest things you’ll get to a perfect police procedural in my opinion. It has everything—a complex plot, a warped killer, a dogged cop in the superb Harry Bosch, intrigue, suspense and plenty of twists. And all set against the wonderfully drawn backdrop of the City of Angels. For me, Connelly always nails the big three of character, plot and setting. He’s the best in the business. The fact that this book was only the third that he wrote kind of blows my mind.

2000s — Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

Everyone knows Gillian Flynn for Gone Girl, the book that made her a household name—but Dark Places is easily my favourite by the author. Libby Day is the sole survivor of a massacre that happened during the ‘satanic panic’ of 1980s small town America. Years later and strapped for cash, she agrees to help a group of amateur sleuths delve back into what really happened the night her mother and sisters were murdered, and her brother was jailed for the horrific crimes. Flynn is the queen of the unlikeable female narrator and just a really, really terrific writer. One of the few books I’ve read more than once.

2010s — Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter

First of all, I should probably say that Karin Slaughter’s books aren’t for everyone. They are often brutal and unflinching, and Pretty Girls is no exception. It’s definitely not for the faint-hearted but what it is, is a masterclass in making the reader care about the characters. It’s about teenage girls who disappeared years apart and it gripped me, surprised me, and, ultimately, it broke my heart. I cried twice reading it and I don’t mean delicate tears dropping onto the page, I’m talking full-blown ugly sobbing. One twist floored me so much I actually shouted, ‘No way!’ and had to set the book aside for a few moments. Between the crying and the yelling, it’s just as well I read Pretty Girls at home and not on the morning commute to work…

Ending the year with King and Connelly and also introducing Karin Slaughter, Sue Grafton and Gillian Flynn to the Decades Library means I get to finish 2021 on a real high. My thanks to Lisa for these terrific recommendations. As this is the last Decades of the year I would like to thank all my wonderful guests who have made this feature a year-long celebration of booklove.

DECADES WILL RETURN

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December 15

Cover Reveal: Rockdown in Lockdown – Adam Maxwell

I don’t often do cover reveals but the Kilchester books by Adam Maxwell are firm favourites in the Grab household and I am extremely excited to be able to join the blogger reveal of the cover of the latest title:

Rockdown in Lockdown

The cure for all your Covid blues…

The Blurb

Katie – other characters can be found lurking on blog posts shared today by some of my fellow bloggers.

Violet Winters was a master criminal. A one-woman crimewave. Until lockdown happened. Now she’s stuck in the house catching up on box sets and ordering crap off the internet.

And then she finds out about The Lakehouse. A former rehab facility, the residents have been thrown out and replaced with a roll-call of some of the most dangerously stupid celebrities in this hemisphere all indulging in a torrent of excess while the rest of the world cowers in their beds.

And that doesn’t sit well with Violet.

At the centre of the The Lakehouse is a vault and inside… the combined riches of every one of these over-privileged idiots. Violet hatches a cunning plan to pull off an audacious robbery and begins by planting a man on the inside.

But when does anything ever go to plan?

With a social media starlet hell-bent on revealing Violet’s identity to her millions of followers and a deranged MMA fighter on their trail things rapidly go from bad to worse.

If she can pull off the world’s only socially-distanced heist, it will be the stuff of legend.

If she can’t she might very well end up floating face-down in the lake.

Rockdown in Lockdown is the latest book in the Kilchester series. It mixes high-octane heist shenanigans with sharp, surreal wit.

The Giveaway

Rockdown in Lockdown will be published on the 20th January 2022 and the author is giving away signed copies of the hardback edition (shipping anywhere in the world included). To enter all you need to do is visit Adam’s website https://www.adammaxwell.com/giveaways/rockdown-in-lockdown/ and everyone who enters will receive a free Kindle copy of the Kilchester Christmas short story ‘Come On Steal The Noise’.

The Author

Crime writer. Idiot. Genius. Liar. Adam Maxwell is at least three of these things.

Adam lives in the wilds of Northumberland with his wife, daughter and an increasingly irritated cat. If you wave to him there is every chance he will consider waving back.

Rockdown in Lockdown is available to pre-order now as an ebook, with real-book pre-orders arriving any minute!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B09N4WT1TL

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December 12

The Christmas Murder Game – A.K. Benedict

Twelve clues. Twelve keys. Twelve days of Christmas. But who will survive until Twelfth Night?

Lily Armitage never intended to return to Endgame House – the grand family home where her mother died twenty-one Christmases ago. Until she receives a letter from her aunt, asking her to return to take part in an annual tradition: the Christmas Game.

The challenge? Solve twelve clues, to find twelve keys. The prize? The deeds to the manor house. Lily has no desire to win the house. But her aunt makes one more promise: The clues will also reveal who really killed Lily’s mother all those years ago.

So, for the twelve days of Christmas, Lily must stay at Endgame House with her estranged cousins and unravel the riddles that hold the key not just to the family home, but to its darkest secrets. However, it soon becomes clear that her cousins all have their own reasons for wanting to win the house – and not all of them are playing fair.

As a snowstorm cuts them off from the village, the game turns deadly. Soon Lily realises that she is no longer fighting for an inheritance, but for her life. This Christmas is to die for… let the game begin.

My thanks to Eleanor Stammeijer at Bonnier Books for my review copy.

If you are thinking of gifting a book to someone this festive period and you know they are a fan of classic crime, locked room mysteries or love a story with some puzzles to work on as the story unfolds then AK Benedict’s The Christmas Murder Game is the book you should be wrapping for that person. If you are also a fan of those things then I would recommend getting a second copy for yourself. This one is FUN.

Okay maybe it isn’t fun for the victims in the story, all members of the same family who have been called to the family home, Endgame House, after the death of the family matriach. In years gone by all the children in the family would take part in the Christmas Game where clues were provided and had to be solved with presents at stake. Lily loved the games and knew Endgame House so well that she could easily solve the clues, however, she didn’t enjoy the tempers from some of the family members who fared less well so she shrunk into the background and let others claim the prizes.

Years earlier Lily vowed never to return to Endgame House after her mother died, leaving Lily to fend for herself at far too young an age. But it was her aunt’s dying wish that all the family (Lily included) return to Endgame House to pay the Christmas Game one last time as her death meant someone had to win the Game to win Endgame House. With a huge ancestral home going to the winner the former hotel is filled with squabbling kin who all want to best the other.

There will be daily clues and the chance to win keys. The correct key will open the door to a secret room hidden within Endgame House and for the winner the whole house. Lawyers have been consulted and the competition will be legally binding but only the family and a housekeeper will be resident during the twelve days of Christmas while the game plays out. The fact the guests all arrive as a heavy blizzard descends means they will all be trapped within Endgame House irrespective of how the rules were devised. Nobody can get in, nobody can get out so when one of their number is found dead there is only one possible truth – there is a killer in their midst who will stop at nothing to win the Christmas Game and take ownership of Endgame House.

AK Benedict has worked wonders with this story. It’s a Christie-esk murder tale. It’s Doctor Who’s Robots of Death (without the robots) and it’s a puzzle fan’s dream as there are anagram challenges and christmas books to identify which the author has peppered through each “day of Christmas”. I will confess to doing badly at those challenges but I had lots of fun trying (stress trying) to do well!

Lily shines through this story and she drives the narration. There are unexplained and unusual incidents, creepy noises from empty parts of the house and a murderer in their midst but Lily also has to contend with a return to the place of her mother’s death and that is hitting much harder than she had expected. Lily is beautifully written and I got much more invested into her plight than I ever did with the procession of characters Dame Agatha tripped out in her English Country Manor tales.

The Christmas Murder Game has the feel of a classic crime thriller but is very much a modern tale – when a Playstation was mentioned at one point it made me realise this wasn’t a book written in the Golden Age of crime fiction though I had that sepia tinted impression a number of times.

This is the perfect time of year to be picking up this book but don’t take too long and risk spoilers, the fun really is in not knowing where this story will take you. Charming with some nasty murders – great fun!

The Christmas Murder Game is published by Bonnier Zaffre and is available in hardback, digital and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-christmas-murder-game/alexandra-benedict/9781838775384

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December 11

The Untold Story – Genevieve Cogman

Return to the world of the Invisible Library for Irene’s most perilous mission yet . . .

Librarian Spy Irene is heading into danger. Not for the first time, but could this be her last? She’s tasked with a terrifyingly dangerous solo mission to eliminate an old enemy, which must be kept secret at all costs. But even more troubling news emerges. Multiple worlds are disappearing – and the Library may have something to do with it.

Determined to uncover the truth behind the vanished worlds, Irene and her friends must descend into the unplumbed depths of the Library. And what they find will change everything they know. This may be Irene’s most dangerous assignment of her hazardous career.

My thanks to Black Crow PR for the opportunity to host this leg of the blog tour and for providing a review copy ahead of publication.

The Untold Story, for fans of Genevieve Cogman’s wonderful series about The Invisible Library it is time for the biggest secret to be revealed – the story of the Library.

This is the culmination of events, the point where all the threads will be pulled together and what better way to to that than by having Librarian Irene and her companions seek out the story which began it all? The Library has been at the heart of everything through the previous seven books and Irene has shown she will do whatever it takes to complete the missions which the elders at the Library will set her. Of late, however, the book retrieval missions which Irene would traditionally undertake appear to have been reduced in number as diplomatic discussions are becoming more numerous – as is the case at the start of The Untold Story.

Irene is tasked with getting a treaty signed, she feels she is being kept out of the The Library but respects the task she has been assigned to complete and is preparing for a prolonged negotiation. She is alone as her dragon partner, Kai, has not been allowed to attend. Fate will not allow Irene to conduct a “normal” negotiation though and soon readers will enjoy another display of Irene’s resourcefulness and blind luck as she tries to wriggle out of a dangerous predicament. It’s a great opening to the story and allows Genevieve Cogman to bring readers back up to speed with recent events in Irene’s life while also getting the players in place for the next chapter in the story.

The Untold Story is the eighth book in the Invisible Library series so it’s not a jumping on point but there is still care taken by the author to ensure readers are aware of enough background information to get full enjoyment from the new story. There are characters returning from previous books who will play key roles but more importantly there are many familiar faces who will seek to aid (or hinder) Irene as she undertakes her most challenging mission to date.

Irene has discovered the truth about Alberich but she needs to keep that infomration to herself if she can. However, he remains the most dangerous enemy of The Library and he wants to meet as he is proposing a peace treaty. Irene, however, is doing her own investigation into Alberich as she tries to understand what made him turn against the Library in the first instance. To fully understand this she begins to dig deeper into the history of the Library and its creation – how did this astonishing force come into being?

The history of the Library is a well kept secret and someone or something does not want Irene to find out anything about its creation. Working on rumour and story Irene finds a storyteller who can fill in some of the gaps in her knowledge. Will the story she hears let her understand what has turned Alberich from faithful Library servant into a dangerous enemy who is hellbent on destroying the Library? If she can get to the truth then perhaps she may finally defeat Alberich and bring a new peace for the Library.

There are no spoilers in my review but I can tell you that this is a wonderful story which shocks, entertains and fully rewards readers as the secrets are revealed. There are some unexpected casualties along the way and I am not sure Irene’s life will be the same after The Untold Story ends. What I do know it that I have loved this sweeping saga of Librarians, Dragon and Fae – the cautious politics and the sneaky deceptions. The Untold Story is an essential acquisition for any fantasy reader and I do hope there may be more stories from the Library one day.

The Untold Story is published by Pan Macmillan and is available in paperback, digital and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-untold-story/genevieve-cogman/9781529000634

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